? 5/20 Sly AMPS 85 +2 86 +6 85 PMPS 77 +2 80 Vet appt rant! IBD Question

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AARRRGGGG!!!!!!!!:mad::mad::mad::mad:

Took Sly to the vet today for his vomiting. His xrays looked good except his stomach was really full of air/gas (last time it was really full of food). Blood work all looked good. Unfortunately I got the vet at our vets office I don't particularly care for. She says that Sly likely has triaditis, the shelter wouldn't pay for diagnosing that so we just need to go forward with treating like he does and prescribes a pile of pills and she is going to call the shelter manager about changing his diet. Everything she brought up is high in carbs so high asked what it was in the food exactly that made it good for IBD so we could find something that is good for his diabetes and IBD and she just brushed me off and said he can't eat the high protein foods and she'd talk to the shelter manager about his diet. Says she knows I like diabetics to be under 100, but they are just fine to be left in the 200s, most are in the 300s usually and none of them ever stay in remission for more than 6 months, "They've never seen it". She maybe should check their patient list :rolleyes:. I've never been able to figure out how she can practice there with our vet and treat diabetics so differently.

If he has IBD, then fine, we need to treat him accordingly. But IMO we don't compromise treating what we know about for something we are guessing might be there.

Sly was 110 on their blood work :) Was probably good he was running higher today than yesterday. Might have got hooked up to a glucose drip if they found him under 70 :banghead:

So does anyone have a diabetic kitty with IBD and have a food that works well for them? (not raw, just can't do raw with our schedule and with a foster cat).
 
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(((((Melanie))))) Oh yeah, Has this woman ever seen your other kitties that are OTJ?? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Did she say why she thinks it is Triaditis? Unfortunately the only way to get a real diagnosis is a biopsy, which is why I bet the shelter won't pay for it? Would the shelter at least pay for an ultrasound, which might help locate where the thickening of the colon might be?

I'm pretty lucky, my vet never has tried to push prescription food, the only reason Tiger ate DM and EN was by Tiger's own preference because she wouldn't eat anything else for a while. :rolleyes: My vet was supportive of a switch to a raw diet, or at the very least, a quality high protein low carb food. She says it is often processed foods with grains like corn that cause imflammation in the gut.

But what I've been finding out is, it's complicated!!! :eek: Some kitties find raw food too rich and vomit! Then there is the question of which novel protein is best? I still have not been brave enough to try raw foods though, I am afraid to cause more vomiting! For the time being, we are feeding Wellness Core(after our pancreatitis attack in November, Tiger started vomiting the regular Wellness Chicken and Turkey so now I only feed Core and she has been vomit free since!) Wellness Core is also low in phosphorus which helps because Tiger is also early CKD. This isn't ideal because another irritant is carageenan and agar agar; but just try finding foods without thickening agents! :confused: Weruva is also a good quality protein and doesn't have carageenan, but naturally my picky eater doesn't care for it. Mariko has told me that Nature's variety instinct and Fromm don't have carageenan either but I have not tried either yet. I am constantly on the look out for other options too!

Some links that you might find helpful: Yahoo IBD group; Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease; and Welcome to IBD Kitties, you might find the article about triaditis interesting.

Sly is sure looking good, despite what the vet says! Sending healing vines and hugs for you both! :bighug::bighug:
 
Has this vet ever heard about renal threshold? While renal threshold is different for every cat, it's likely somewhere in the neighborhood of 200. Having a diabetic cat sit in numbers that are significantly higher is likely going to increase the odds of kidney disease.

A low carb food that's a novel protein will help address iBD issues. (And by the way, did the vet offer to sell you prescription food?)
 
Skooter has IBD.....He is on Nature's Variety chicken and has been on it since last July. He has done VERY well on it. For medication, he is on budesonide....it actually has worked much better than the pred he was on before.

I order it off of Amazon, it is a Prime item, so I am able to get get it in two days and a lot cheaper than when I go to the pet store.
 
Ruth - the shelter didn't say they wouldn't pay for it, the vet said that. Not going to even ask them to, just treat it as that because a history of vomiting is often IBD, pancreatitis. The shelter has never hesitated to get any of my fosters whatever I have asked. I've also just taken them in for tests and paid for it if I felt they were too expensive to ask. And no, I try to make sure she doesn't see my other cats. She is good with my skittish girls, but those are the only ones of mine I will take appts with her with. Fosters I usually just get into whoever has an opening.

(And by the way, did the vet offer to sell you prescription food?)
I/D and Z/D :facepalm: Funny thing is, the OWNER vets don't do that to me. When EVO was on recall and it was the only dry food Mitt ate, Dr A gave me a lot of suggestions to try to get him to eat - none were prescription food!

I think I have a couple novel proteins in the closet at home - venison and maybe some duck of canned EVO. Our local pet food store might carry the NV that Mlly mentioned too. Pretty sure I took all of the Core I had to the shelter when Sly first came in. Core is so rich I am surprise it helped Tiger! I would have expected the opposite. I was ordering the Weruva for Taz by the case, I might have a couple of cans of that somewhere too. The hurdle is going to be Sly is a very picky eater. He wouldn't eat any wet food for the shelter at all. Wellness and Merrick have went well, though he gives us a dirty look when we give him Merrick.

Thanks for the suggestions! Anyone else have any, keep 'em coming. I haven't heard from the Shelter Manager to know what she wants to do. I am hoping we can at least get him into remission and some extra healing time after that before anything too high in carbs is introduced.
 
Mine has ibd/lymphoma and I'm trying hard to get her to eat raw. I know what you mean about the difficulties with scheduling feeding and timing.
It's way different than canned.
I like the nature's variety as well ( altho' mine won't eat it repeatedly) and they even have limited ingredient versions.... lamb or turkey or duck....
they are all good for kidney disease, and diabetes.
I had to get kangaroo because it was the only novel protein mine had never had. But she burned out on that too.
The one raw I do have some success with is stella & chewys ticklin' turkey... It is freeze dried and you can feed it dry or rehydrated.
I just bought primal goat milk to try with the raw to see if it encourages eating.
There is also honest kitchen - grace - freeze dried raw.... these are under 10% so okay for diabetics.
 
You can add 1 ounce plain meat or poultry to 5 ounces of cat food, mix well, and portion out. This dilutes the fat, carbohydrate, and any thickeners, too. (per Cat Info)
 
And now for my inherent cynicism. I'm betting the vet gets paid based on what he bills. He bills you for Rx food, he makes more $$. You do realize that you can take the food back and tell them your cat won't eat it?
 
Hello! Sorry to hear you had to deal with one of Those Vets. Billie has possible IBD (ultrasound done, no biopsy yet) and we have been seeing a very helpful IM vet. Like everyone else said, she recommended a novel protein diet with as few ingredients as possible. Hound & Gatos and Wild Calling are two more great brands to check out. They have a lot of protein options and don't have as many of the filler ingredients (egg, peas, carrots) that can be hard to digest. All under 8% carb, most around 2 or 4. Billie is too picky to stick with a novel protein, so I have a few in rotation now. She has been on ondansetron for nausea and is on a course of metronidazole this week. I hope Sly feels better!!
 
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